The Princess Sodalite Mine
April 16, 2006 by rockwatching
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This is Andy Christe, he owns the Princess Sodalite Mine. Here he sits on top of a vein of sodalite. It is a rare semi precious stone that is only found in quantity in three places in the world; here, in Maine and in Ice River British Columbia.
The Princess Sodalite Mine is situated just outside Bancroft Ontario. It is a region that is thought to have amongst the widest mineral diversities in the world.
Sodalite is found along with nepheline in syenites. They are a silicate poor rock and where volcanic gas rich in sodium and chloride blasts up from the depths along some fissure the sodalite forms, partly replacing the nepheline as a secondary alteration product. Although sodalite is usually found without an external crystal form (massive) it can on rare occasions be found adopting an isometric shape. Andy showed me an incredible “pseudomorph”; a big fissure filled with stuby hexagonally shaped blue crystals. A pseudomorph mineral is one that has adopted a shape that is other than it’s own. Though the hexagonal prism is not the usual form that an isometric crystal like sodalite would take it has replaced the ever-present nepheline crystals, adopting their shape but not their greasy grey colour.
As Andy points out, the fissure in which the local sodalite is found jogs and slips all over the area. In front of his rock shop it cuts under highway 28 and disappears off into the rolling hills out front.
